I'm going to be running a skirmish demo on Free Comic Book Day for people interested in trying the game.

I've done this once before though I don't remember the lists I used. We played on the Chewbacca map.

So which skirmish map would be best for a first timer, and what lists would be best?

For the lists I want Rebels vs Empire

I'm leaning towards simply Vader and some stormtroopers.

I want Vader in my Empire team as a first time player would probably like to use an iconic character, or play against one, and he's easy to use, and limits the complexity of the rest of the list.

I feel like avoiding the regular Imp Officer or Royal Guards so I don't need to take time to explain that those cards have been erratta'd.

So, what list would you make for a first time player that includes Vader and cannot include regular officers or guards?

Including stormtroopers would be a plus since mine are painted up.

For Rebels I was thinking that Luke should be included to sort of mirror Vader in a way, and each team would get the iconic character to use. Throwing in 3PO and some Rebel Troopers might be good too.

I'd like to avoid Sabs for the same reason as the officers and guards.

Rough Ideas:

Darth Vader
Elite Stormtrooper
Stormtrooper
Stormtrooper
Rule by Fear

Luke Skywalker
C-3PO
Elite Alliance Smuggler
Elite Rebel Trooper
Jyn Odan
Wookiee Warrior
Rebel High Command

I just whipped these up fast. I want them to be easy, but interesting to look at for people interested in the game for the first time.

If you wanted to make the demos run faster you might try removing command cards and pairing the lists down to ~30 points. Yes you're not playing the full skirmish but people will get a good feel of how the game works.

Lists could be something like:

Vader

Stormtrooper

Stormtrooper

Luke

Leia

C-3PO

Elite Rebel Trooper

Myself and another poster on this board are running a Skirmish demo this Saturday, we are going with very simplified lists and no command cards.

Vader

Rstorm troopers

Boba Fett

Trandoshans

IG-88

Elite HK Assasin Droids

Royal Guard Champion

Rroyal Guards

Chewbacca

Wookie Warriors

Luke Skywalker

Leia

Rrebel Troopers

Han Solo

C3P0

Ereb Sabs

They won't be totally balanced, but close enough that nobody will notice. The important thing is utilizing the iconic characters while teaching them to manage multi unit deployment cards. We plan to condense some regular skirmish maps into a smaller version and just throw 2 terminals out there, if you control a terminal at the end of the round its 5 points. Play up to 20 points, keep the games rolling let them try out different combinations.

I am debating setting up Hunted Down to showcase the other side of the game as well. The campaign is so well done that it is also a great selling feature, even if you are trying to promote skirmish it helps settle their stomachs on the big initial cost knowing they get a great story line to go with it.

I'm running a demo next week, with no command cards and a basic map I created with VPs for controlling terminals.

Lists

Luke

Gideon

MHD-19

2x Rebel Troopers

Royal Guard

E Officer

E Probe Droid

2x Stormtroopers

These balanced fairly well in a couple of tests. I had an E-Web, snowtroopers and elite saboteurs in an earlier version but they overcomplicated the rules somewhat.